City moves ahead with N. Custer project

Wednesday

The road will be repaved, the pedestrian islands will be removed and it will be two lanes among other changes.

Related: N. Custer project under discussion at Monroe City Council

Related: Monroe considers improvements to N. Custer

N. Custer Rd. is getting a facelift.

The Monroe City Council on Monday voted 6-0 to award Gerken Paving, Inc. a contract to resurface the road between the city line west of Cranbrook Blvd. and Bentley (Custer) Dr.

Councilman Brian Lamour was absent from Monday’s meeting.

Gerken’s bid came in at $689,132.83. The contract includes a 10 percent project contingency.

In accordance to discussions that have taken place at several previous council work sessions, the project also includes several design features intended to benefit pedestrians.

This includes removing the pedestrian refuge islands at the intersections of N. Custer/Cranbrook and N. Custer/Richards St. in favor of raising both intersections about eight inches to improve visibility and safety.

The roadway also will be reconfigured from a three-lane layout to a two-lane design, with the extra space designated as on-street bicycle lanes.

“We’ll also have a variety of pavement markings to go along with that,” added Patrick M. Lewis, the city director of engineering and public services. “We’re going to mark this thing pretty well.”

According to the agenda fact sheet, PED X-ING markings will be used in advance of all crosswalks, with yield arrows placed immediately adjacent to the crosswalks.

The contract also calls for enhanced signage.

The council also has discussed installing some form of flashing or lighted crossing equipment, but that equipment was not part of the bid and Lewis explained that those types of jobs would typically be handled by city staff once the repaving and reconfiguring is complete.

“We’d probably retrofit that in ourselves, but we’ll continue to come up with something on that for presentation,” Lewis said. “There are some options out there. My department has been focused on getting the bid contracts out for bids in a timely fashion, but we’ll continue to work around the edges here as this gets fully implemented.”

Councilman Andrew Felder pulled the N. Custer Rd. contract approval from the meeting’s consent agenda specifically to discuss the safety equipment the council has discussed installing.

“Seeing as the vote that we are taking tonight and what is on the agenda is a removal of certain safety specifications, I just want to make sure that the replacement of those safety specifications are acceptable and up to snuff before approving this,” he said. “I’ve received certain inquiries from the community about the safety of this project as to their opposition to it.

“The rest of the city certainly has to drive on N. Custer, but the citizens of the Sixth Precinct have to walk on these roads and they have to cross here,” he said.

Felder did vote to approve the contract and later reaffirmed his support for the project.

“I hope the project more broadly helps improve the street and eliminate some of traffic issues we’ve had in the past,” he said. “I hope, overall, that the project works out.”

Councilman John Iacoangeli was pleased to see that the project came in under the city engineer’s estimate of $709,790.50.